GRFF Info.

Hello Readers.

Just wanted to provide you with all the information you’ll need regarding the upcoming Grand River Film Festival and how you can see 3x – which was shortlisted for the GRFF Shortcuts Competition.

There will be 2 screenings of all 6 shorts, including 3x. They will both be on Saturday, October 25th.

The first is being held held at the Children’s Museum in downtown Kitchener and starts at 3.30 PM.

The second being held at the School of Architecture in downtown Cambridge and starts at 5.30 PM.

Both screenings are on a “Pay-what-you-can” basis, so please do come out, empty your change purses, and enjoy some fantastic films.

There will also be a showing of just 3x preceding the film Sasori at 5.30 at Wilfred Laurier — however this would require you to purchase a ticket to the screening of Sasori, which we don’t expect anyone to do. If you do however want to check it out, tickets can be purchased online, at the GRFF box-office (see their site for details), for 15-minutes prior to the film’s start time. Again, see site for details (it’s a little confusing).

Finally, we will be sure to keep everyone abreast of how we end up doing in the festival, along with anything exciting that happens a long the way.

If you have any questions be sure to check out the Grand River Film Festival website first, and if you can’t find it there let us know and we’ll do our best to fill you in.

We hope to see you there!

Short-Listed.

Woke up this morning to an e-mail from the folks at the Grand River Film Festival. Turns out that our film, 3x, has been selected for the top six in their Short Film Competition.

The winners will be announced at the Closing Gala, Sunday October 26, 2008 at 7:30PM, University of Waterloo, School of Architecture 7 Melville Street South, Cambridge, Ontario.

Of course I have no idea if we have a shot at winning (if everything was amateur films, or professional films) but just to be selected is a real honour! Especially since, judging by the application I had to fill out, the competition is catered more towards the professionals than amateurs.

For more information (including a list of all the shorts submitted) check out the GRFF website

Wish us luck!

One Shot Split Screen

It’s been a long while since the last update…

This year in my design class I’ve been given the task to create a one shot. For those of you unfamiliar with the term it is essentially what the name implies: one continuous long shot. The camera starts, action occurs, and the camera cuts, usually many minutes later. There are plenty of examples in cinema, and many films have tried to top each preceding film with the sheer complexity of their one-shots.

When I first read the script for 3x I was stuck by the possibility for the inclusion of such a thing. Not only that, since I was watching a lot of ReGenesis I also had the idea of doing lots of split screens. And since, afterall, we were trying to win a Charlie I thought what better way to show off than to not only have a split screen but a one shot split screen — two contiuous one shots that meet up at the end.

It was ambitious.

It was difficult.

It was beautiful.

It was cut.

Sort of.

The entire scene made it into the first cut of the film, which was viewed by a select few. However for timing purposes it was truncated for the final “awards” version.  While elements of it remain, a lot of the magic wore off since it no longer appeared to be TWO continuous 3 minute shots that matched up in the end.

But because of this project, and the numerous examples we’d been watching it got me thinking back to our one shot and I wanted to share it with some friends.

So here it is the complete sequence, the way it was in the original cut.

Enjoy.

TWO INTERESTING NOTES:

We knew from the get-go that we essentially had one shot (no pun intended) to do the scene. Robin had to burn a hole in her shirt, and cover it with blood. The first take had to be perfect or else we were screwed. We rehearsed the scene at least 8 times (in full, from start to finish) before we went ahead and shot it. However, believe it or not, we actually had to do a second take. Robin didn’t put enough blood on the shirt for it to be noticeable to the camera and as such we had to re-do the scene. Luckily for us, the hole she burnt was on a black stripe (which meant it was virtually unnoticeable) and since the camera couldn’t see the blood anyways we knew we could do the scene again without any issues. We did, and it went over flawlessly.

Also, this was one of the very first sequences I edited. After we wrapped our first weekend of shooting I immediately began capturing and editing scene together. Since not all the film was shot I had only a few select scenes to work with. The split screen was one of them and so it was among those first completed scenes which I showed to the cast/crew a week later. It is also one of the only scenes that by and large wasn’t changed from that very first version (the only difference then was the music played).

Please, sound off in the comments about what you think!

3x Screener Hits the Net

Well folks it’s that time of the year: Oscar season. And with Oscar Season comes Screener Season – screeners being shipped to academy voters… and those screeners being leaked to the web.

And we thought – why shouldn’t 3x join in the Screener fun? Sure it’s not up for an Oscar, and sure its not on par with even the worst of the Oscar Noms (okay… well maybe not Atonement) but the amount of request I get to see it is crazy so I wanted to give you all the chance.

and SINCE my new website has officially launched – *cough*adamschoales.com*cough* – it’s now super easy for everyone to get to.

The video is encoded in flash – which I realize isn’t ideal for all (I prefer quicktime for its iPod readiness and much higher quality) – but that should make it easy for everyone to play, all you need is the flash 9 player (and even Pearl’s computer should be able to run it).We’re working on getting the Quicktime version all nicely embedded – but it’s going to take some hacking.

So in the meantime check out
http://imagearts.ryerson.ca/aschoales/portfolio/films/3x-flash.html

or

http://3x.adamschoales.com

and get your fix of 3x this Oscar Season!

The Soundtrack: Web Edition

As a little treat (mostly to make up for the lack of updates during our last production) I decided to put together a preview of our upcoming soundtrack.

We’ve included mp3s of every song featured in the film. Now, the official soundtrack we will be putting out with the DVDs will feature the full version of each song, the 3x version of each song, songs that were originally intended to appear on in the film (from the original script) among other things.

However since we wanted to keep that version worth while, I’ve only put the regular album edits of each track we had in the final cut of the film.

So sit back and enjoy the 3x soundtrack.

Click the album cover to download.

How Many Versions?

So how many versions of 3x are actually in existance. Quite a few actually. However there are currently only 3 “official” versions. (Yes, its a very odd coincidence that there are three cuts of 3x). To help you understand what these are I’ve broken it down for everyone.

THE PRESENTATION CUT - This is known as The Presentation Cut as it was the one that we first presented to the class on our “showing” day, April 11th 2007. It was a very successful showing, which resulted in the conclusion to send it to Charlies. However it was deemed somewhat confusing, and also too long for the 15 mintue requirement for the Charlies. As such, we had to go back and start recutting. This cut would also be presented to numerous other classes (including Douglas’ Grade 10 University English class) which would help us determine the changes that needed to be made. One major feature that it included was the full 2 minute credit sequence which had to be (severely) trimmed for Charlies.

(There also exists a version of the film that contains no sound as I forgot to include the soundtrack on the DVD timeline. Whoops!)

Runtime: 19 minutes.

THE THEATRICAL or CHARLIES CUT - The Theatrical cut has become the most viewed version of the film as it was first shown at The Charlie awards (where it subsequently took first place) and at various other events including the Waterloo Region English Awards and The Eastwood Arts Awards. This version contained numerous changes to help clairity, speed up the movement of the film, and other general changes. One major change was the inclusion of dialogue during the planning scene to help clear up the fact that they were plotting to escape, not murder Malcolm. A full list of changes will be released when we put out the DVD.

Also, it should be noted that there were 2 different Charlie cuts finished. The final version differs slightly from the first one that was completed. Most of the changes were purely aesthetic, changing text placement, sound levels and the like. This first version will most likely not be released as there is really no need to since the changes are so minimal.

Runtime: 14 minutes.

THE DEFINITIVE DIRECTORS CUT – Currently being edited. It will combine elements from both versions. The best way to describe it is take the theatrical cut (which featured some changes from the original cut, such as the new flashbacks, better sound mix, etc.) and re-insert some of the scenes that were removed. As this cut is not yet complete there isn’t much to report however we will update everyone once it is completed and include all the changes/additions we made.

One thing is certain, it will contain the longest credits of all versions as it will be sure to include the original 2 minute credits along with full song credits among other things that will need to be added as a result of the Theatrical cut. As such you can expect this credit sequence to be longer.

Runtime: Unknown at this point. We’ll keep you posted.

So there you have it. The official look at the multiple versions of 3x. As I type this I just completed labeling the last of the 7 different DVDs of 3x I had in my CD case. There are more lying around my room somewhere I’m sure.

You can expect to find those 3 versions on your DVD which will be released in the coming months. We’ll keep everyone posted as soon as we have information.

Oh! And be sure to join our Facebook Group to stay up to date!

The Charlies.

Just wanted to make an official announcement that on Thursday April 19th 3x took home first place at the Charlie Awards along with merits for direction, editing, and cinematography. Congratulations to the cast and crew (and all the friends who put up with everything!). All that hard work finally has paid off.

Three of the Finest Student Filmmakers in Waterloo Region
(and the greatest teacher on the face of the planet!)

Surprise Screening.

Well today we were in for quite a surprise. I had been editing in the Radio room first period because I was too lazy to get off my butt and move into the editing room, and so when period 2 rolled around I decided to see how crowded the video editing room was and go move in again.

When I got there I was told by Alex that Douglas was showing his grade 10 class 3x and that Nate was in there as well.

Naturally we ran over to see what was going down.

We were only a few seconds late, and we sat down and watched the film… again.

When the film finished, once again, no one did a thing until the film was completely over.

We then had an incredibly constructive discussion with the whole class. I was shocked with how well this grade 10 class managed to grasp the film and were able to deconstruct it. The most shocking thing was how all the women in the class understood it completely and the only people who had real troubles with it were the boys… who all wanted action movies. When I thought about it I wasn’t all that surprised, but I never thought that these young 15 year olds would fully understand the film.

The general consensus was the class was confused, but not in the same was as Douglas was. They all thought (or at least said that) everything came together in the end and the film was wrapped up.

It also gave us a real fresh look at where the film is flawed and where we need to go back and fix things.

Special thanks to “Mandy” who offered a lot of insight into just what exactly was going on inside of people during the film, even if she hated Paris with a fiery passion.

We also had Charlie selections today. The two films that will be going are 3x and The Day After the Night Before (Martina and Alex’s film). We both have a lot of work to do, but I think it will be a good showing. Congratulations ladies.

Oh and for the record: I do feel bad for Paris.

A Success.

Today we showed the film to the class.

We were all so incredibly nervous. We didn’t know how people were going to react.

When we got to the end credits and no one said a word or made a sound until the film was finally fully completed (and the title rolled up) that’s when I knew we did it. We pulled it off.

Alex and Kay had tears in their eyes. My heart was pounding so hard I thought I may go into cardiac arrest.

We still have a lot of work to do before next week but all in all it was an incredible success.

Congratulations.

Thanks to everyone who made the film a success. We couldn’t have done it without everyone’s help.

But alas, I have to run as I’ve got some editing to do…

I will try and post the soundtrack as soon as possible for everyone’s listening pleasure.

The Rough Cut.

Well you’ll notice that there hasn’t been an update in a while, and with good reason.

This entire week was dedicated to getting our final rough cut of the film completed. I promised our producer to have the film done by the original due date of April 2nd, to ensure we would be finished by the official due date of April 10th.

And so Wednesday was my full day off for editing which allowed me to get most of the picture cut, and to get all our foley in. That night we went back to do reshoots for the darkroom sequence (funny story about that…) and then the rest of the week was spent getting the rest cut.

And so, here we are on Saturday and we have our entire rough cut complete. Now, admitedly we are missing a few shots, mostly inserts, however if need be we could show this version and be very happy… even if it is 19 minutes.

We also have been discussing how to cut the film down for the upcoming Charlie awards, and I made a decision on what we would do. This version is drastically different from the original but also incredible. I’ll be sure to post it once it’s completed… but that will not be until we finish the actual original version of the film.

I have to get back to work, we still have titles and credits to do, however I will keep everyone up to date with our progress.